Part 1

Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustrations. See 60155-h.htm or 60155-h.zip: (https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/60155/pg60155-images.html) or (https://www.gutenberg.org/files/60155/60155-h.zip)

Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive. See https://archive.org/details/penpicturesofbri00londiala

PEN PICTURES OF BRITISH BATTLES

Painted by Author and Artist.

London: Eyre and Spottiswoode, Ltd. 1917.

CONTENTS.

PAGE I.--THE VICTORY OF THE FALKLAND ISLANDS 5 _By Dr. Richard Wilson._

II.--THE BATTLE OF THE MARNE 11 _By Sir Arthur Conan Doyle._

III.--A GLIMPSE OF CANADA IN FLANDERS 17 _By Lord Beaverbrook._

IV.--THE SECOND BATTLE OF YPRES 23 _By John Buchan._

V.--THE BATTLE OF JUTLAND BANK 29 _By H. W. Wilson._

VI.--THE CHARGE AT LOOS OF THE LONDON IRISH 39

VII.--THE LANDING AT V BEACH, NEAR SEDD-EL-BAHR 43 _By John Masefield._

VIII.--THE COLDSTREAM GUARDS AT THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME 49 _By Philip Gibbs._

IX.--THE MOONLIGHT BATTLE FOR BAGHDAD 53 _By Edmund Candler._

X.--THE BATTLE OF ARRAS 59 _By Philip Gibbs._

XI.--WARFARE UNDER WATER 67 _By Rudyard Kipling._

EDITOR’S NOTE.

_Though Sir Walter Besant called War correspondents “the scene painters of history,” it may be questioned whether any pen or brush, trained on the land, sea and air battles of the present War, can depict more than a corner of the great devastating drama._

_This little book, embracing extracts from famous books, may help the reader to visualise some of the outstanding battles in which Britain has played a not inconspicuous part; and if they inspire those still fighting, and those behind them in support, with a firmer confidence and a greater endurance--if, too, these records of undaunted heroism, often against odds, enlighten readers in other lands as to the character of British fighting men--their publication in this informal style will be justified._

_Full acknowledgment is here made to the authors and publishers who have kindly permitted quotation; and to the proprietors of two great illustrated weekly papers who have lent for reproduction original sketches appearing in their pages._

_April, 1917._

I.

THE VICTORY OF THE FALKLAND ISLANDS.[A]

By RICHARD WILSON, Litt.D.

[A] _From “The First Year of the Great War.” By Richard Wilson, Litt.D. (W. & R. Chambers.)_

The affair off Coronel put the heads of the British navy upon their mettle, and within forty days it was followed by a counter-stroke, complete and effective. Silently and with steady determination, preparations were made to deal with the _Scharnhorst_ and her companions; and the man who was entrusted with the work was Vice-Admiral Sir F. C. Doveton Sturdee.

To the east of the southern portion of South America lies the British group known as the Falkland Islands. Due east of the large island called East Falkland, Sturdee’s squadron came within sight of Von Spee’s cruisers, the British admiral having been helped in finding the “quarry” by the clever wireless signalling of a lady and her servants who lived on the islands, and who were afterwards presented with valuable gifts by the British Admiralty as some slight acknowledgment of their timely help.

After the battle off Coronel, the _Glasgow_, along with the battleship _Canopus_, had put into the harbour of Port Stanley, in East Falkland. The former vessel had been damaged, but she was quickly repaired; and when Admiral Sturdee arrived from home, she took her place in his squadron, her officers and men being eager to set things right with the Germans. It was reported that Von Spee’s squadron was going to make a raid on the Falklands; but when he came round Cape Horn he found awaiting him eight British ships of war, and, so far as we know, this was a complete surprise to him.

At about half-past nine in the morning the _Gneisenau_ and the _Nürnberg_ drew near to Port Stanley Harbour with their guns trained on the wireless station. Between them and the harbour was a long low stretch of land running eastward, behind which lay the _Canopus_. The surprise of the Germans must have been great when they were met by a smart fire across this low-lying land at a range of about six miles! The two ships stopped, considered, and turned away, hoisting their colours, however, as they did so. About the same time the _Invincible_ sighted other hostile ships between nine and ten miles distant; and in a short time the British squadron was moving from the harbour towards the enemy’s five ships, which could be plainly seen to the south-east. The day was fine, with a calm sea, a bright sun, a clear sky, and a light breeze from the north-west.

The British vessels at once began a chase in extended order, and the hearts of our men must have been deeply stirred by the admiral’s simple signal, “God save the King!” One of the signallers afterwards wrote: “It was taken up and flung far and wide through space by each of the fleet in turn, until it seemed as though it would never cease. I consider it a privilege to have been one of the few to bear the signal.” A little after noon Admiral Sturdee came within suitable range of the five enemy ships, and decided to attack with the _Invincible_, the _Inflexible_, and the _Glasgow_. How the officers and crew of the last-named vessel had longed for this happy moment!

The signal was given, “Open fire and engage the enemy,” and the _Inflexible_ began the battle, followed a few minutes later by the _Invincible_. This firing was at a range of about nine miles--no opportunities for boarding here, cutlass in teeth, and pistols in both hands!--but the British gunnery was so good that three of the German ships turned away. Then the _Glasgow_, with the _Cornwall_ and the _Kent_, gave chase. We shall follow their work when we have considered that of the heavier craft.

The _Invincible_ engaged the enemy’s flagship, the _Scharnhorst_, and the _Inflexible_ the _Gneisenau_, the fight being a running one, and the range varying from about eight to nine miles. Before long the German flagship took fire, lost one of her funnels, and slackened her firing. “The effect of our fire,” writes Admiral Sturdee, “became more and more apparent in consequence of smoke from fires, and also escaping steam. At times a shell would cause a large hole to appear in her side, through which could be seen a dull red glow of flame.” Yet the German kept grimly on with her work.

The _Gneisenau_ now gamely faced the _Invincible_ and the _Inflexible_, but about 5 o’clock she lost one funnel and was on fire in several places. She continued, however, to reply to the British gunners with a single gun, until, an hour later, she suddenly heeled over and sank. Here is an entry in the diary of one of her officers: “5.10, Hit, hit! 5.12, Hit! 5.14, Hit, hit, hit again! 5.20, After turret gone. 5.40, Hit, hit! On fire everywhere. 5.41, Hit, hit! Burning everywhere and sinking. 5.45, Hit! Men dying everywhere. 5.46, Hit, hit!”

After this the officers had something else to do than make entries in a diary. Boats had been lowered from the _Invincible_ and the _Inflexible_, life-buoys and ropes were thrown into the water, and about 300 men were saved, “including their captain--a tall man with a black beard.”

Meanwhile the _Glasgow_ and the _Cornwall_ had fought and sunk the _Leipzig_. Like the other German ships, she took fire fore and aft, and as the shades of night were closing in she turned over on her port side and disappeared. The _Cornwall_ began to lower boats when the _Leipzig_ was settling down, but the British Captain leant over the rail of the bridge and said, “It’s no good; she’s going.”

While this was going on the _Kent_ was dealing with the _Nürnberg_, after a desperate chase with only a small amount of fuel to rely upon. When the engineers had done their best and worked up the speed well above the rate which the _Kent_ could do “officially,” they reported that their coal was almost used up. Then the captain suggested that the boats might prove useful in such a case! No sooner said than done! The boats were promptly broken up, the pieces smeared with oil, and packed by the stokers into the furnaces.

This use of the boats had suggested other means of providing fuel, and soon the men were hurrying to the furnaces with officers’ armchairs, chests, ladders, and anything which would burn. So the speed limit was much further exceeded, the _Nürnberg_ was caught and sunk, but not before she had put up a stiff fight. Fire was stopped on the _Kent_ when the German hauled down her colours, and every preparation was made to save life. As the ship sank the British sailors saw a group of men waving a German ensign fastened to a staff. Only five Germans were rescued alive from the doomed ship.

Only one of the German ships, the fast cruiser _Dresden_, escaped from the battle, the clouds which overcast the sky in the evening assisting her in getting clear away. The darkness closed in, but near midnight Admiral Sturdee received a message from H.M.S. _Bristol_ to the effect that during the action two enemy transports had been destroyed near the Falklands, their crews being removed before the ships were sunk. So ended a memorable day in British naval history.

II.

THE BATTLE OF THE MARNE.[B]

By SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE.

[B] _From “The British Campaign in France and Flanders.” By Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. (Hodder & Stoughton.)_

On September 11 the British were still advancing upon a somewhat narrowed front. There was no opposition, and again the day bore a considerable crop of prisoners and other trophies. The weather had become so foggy that the aircraft were useless, and it is only when these wonderful scouters are precluded from rising that a general realises how indispensable they have become to him. As a wit expressed it, they have turned war from a game of cards into a game of chess. It was still very wet, and the Army was exposed to considerable privation, most of the officers and men having neither change of clothing, overcoats, nor waterproof sheets, while the blowing up of bridges on the lines of communication had made it impossible to supply the wants. The undefeatable commissariat, however, was still working well, which means that the Army was doing the same. On the 12th the pursuit was continued as far as the River Aisne. Allenby’s cavalry occupied Braine in the early morning, the Queen’s Bays being particularly active, but there was so much resistance that the Third Division was needed to make the ground good. Gough’s Cavalry Division also ran into the enemy near Chassemy, killing or capturing several hundred of the German infantry. In these operations Captain Stewart, whose experience as an alleged spy has been mentioned, met with a soldier’s death. On this day the Sixth French Army was fighting a considerable action upon the British left in the vicinity of Soissons, the Germans making a stand in order to give time for their impedimenta to get over the river. In this they succeeded, so that when the Allied Forces reached the Aisne, which is an unfordable stream some sixty yards from bank to bank, the retiring army had got across it, had destroyed most of the bridges, and showed every sign of being prepared to dispute the crossing.

Missy Bridge, facing the Fifth Division, appeared at first to be intact, but a daring reconnaissance by Lieutenant Pennecuick, of the Engineers, showed that it was really badly damaged. Condé Bridge was intact, but was so covered by a high horse-shoe formation of hills upon the farther side that it could not be used, and remained throughout under control of the enemy. Bourg Bridge, however, in front of the First Army Corps, had for some unexplained reason been left undamaged, and this was seized in the early morning of September 13 by De Lisle’s cavalry, followed rapidly by Bulfin’s 2nd Brigade. It was on the face of it a somewhat desperate enterprise which lay immediately in front of the British general. If the enemy were still retreating he could not afford to slacken his pursuit, while, on the other hand, if the enemy were merely making a feint of resistance, then, at all hazards, the stream must be forced and the rearguard driven in. The German infantry could be seen streaming up the roads on the farther bank of the river, but there were no signs of what their next disposition might be. Air reconnaissance was still precluded, and it was impossible to say for certain which alternative might prove to be correct, but Sir John French’s cavalry training must incline him always to the braver course. The officer who rode through the Boers to Kimberley and threw himself with his weary men across the path of the formidable Kronje was not likely to stand hesitating upon the banks of the Aisne. His personal opinion was that the enemy meant to stand and fight, but none the less the order was given to cross.

September 13 was spent in arranging this dashing and dangerous movement. The British got across eventually in several places and by various devices. Bulfin’s men, followed by the rest of the First Division of Haig’s Army Corps, passed the canal bridge of Bourg with no loss or difficulty. The 11th Brigade of Pulteney’s Third Corps got across by a partially demolished bridge and ferry at Venizel. They were followed by the 12th Brigade, who established themselves near Bucy. The 13th Brigade was held up at Missy, but the 14th got across and lined up with the men of the Third Corps in the neighbourhood of Ste. Marguerite, meeting with a considerable resistance from the Germans. Later, Count Gleichen’s 15th Brigade also got across. On the right Hamilton got over with two brigades of the Third Division, the 8th Brigade crossing on a single plank at Vailly and the 9th using the railway bridge, while the whole of Haig’s First Corps had before evening got a footing upon the farther bank. So eager was the advance and so inadequate the means that Haking’s 5th Brigade, led by the Connaught Rangers, was obliged to get over the broad and dangerous river, walking in single file along the sloping girder of a ruined bridge, under a heavy, though distant, shell-fire. The night of September 13 saw the main body of the Army across the river, already conscious of a strong rear-guard action, but not yet aware that the whole German Army had halted and was turning at bay. On the right De Lisle’s cavalrymen had pushed up the slope from Bourg Bridge and reached as far as Vendresse, where they were pulled up by the German lines.

It has been mentioned above that the 11th and 12th Brigades of the Fourth Division had passed the river at Venizel. These troops were across in the early afternoon, and they at once advanced, and proved that in that portion of the field the enemy were undoubtedly standing fast. The 11th Brigade, which was more to the north, had only a constant shell-fire to endure, but the 12th, pushing forward through Bucy-le-long, found itself in front of a line of woods from which there swept a heavy machine-gun and rifle-fire. The advance was headed by the 2nd Lancashire Fusiliers, supported by the 2nd Inniskilling Fusiliers. It was across open ground and under heavy fire, but it was admirably carried out. In places where the machine-guns had got the exact range the stricken Fusiliers lay dead or wounded with accurate intervals, like a firing-line on a field-day. The losses were heavy, especially in the Lancashire Fusiliers. Colonel Griffin was wounded, and five of his officers with 250 men were among the casualties. It should be recorded that fresh supplies of ammunition were brought up at personal risk by Colonel Seely, late Minister of War, in his motor-car. The contest continued until dusk, when the troops waited for the battle of next day under such cover as they could find.

The crossing of the stream may be said, upon the one side, to mark the end of the battle and pursuit of the Marne, while, on the other, it commenced that interminable Battle of the Aisne which was destined to fulfil Bloch’s prophecies and to set the type of all great modern engagements. The prolonged struggles of the Manchurian War had prepared men’s minds for such a development, but only here did it first assume its full proportions and warn us that the battle of the future was to be the siege of the past. Men remembered with a smile Bernhardi’s confident assertion that a German battle would be decided in one day, and that his countrymen would never be constrained to fight in defensive trenches.

The moral effect of the Battle of the Marne was greater than its material gains. The latter, so far as the British were concerned, did not exceed 5,000 prisoners, 20 guns, and a quantity of transport. The total losses, however, were very heavy.

Apart from the losses, the mere fact that a great German army had been hustled across 30 miles of country, had been driven from river to river, and had finally to take refuge in trenches in order to hold their ground, was a great encouragement to the Allies. From that time they felt assured that with anything like equal numbers they had an ascendancy over their opponents.

III.

A GLIMPSE OF CANADA IN FLANDERS.[C]

By LORD BEAVERBROOK.

[C] _From “Canada in Flanders” (Vol. I.). By Sir Max Aitken. (Hodder & Stoughton.)_

The end of the month was marked by one or two very daring reconnaissances by Lieutenant Owen, of the 7th (British Columbia) Battalion, up the bed of the Douve River, and by a great aeroplane battle.

The aeroplane battle occurred upon a morning warm and bright with sunshine. The conditions were admirable for flying and observing, and, as usual, a German Albatross took advantage of them. Soaring high against the warm blue of the sky, over Bailleul, over the headquarters of a division, over our brigades and trenches and back again, it glinted like silver in the morning sun. The snow-white blobs of bursting shrapnel from our anti-aircraft guns followed its graceful sweeps and curves--followed and followed, but never caught it up; and thousands of our men stared after it. But a more dramatic spectacle was in store for the watchers on the brown roads and in the brown trenches.

A British machine appeared suddenly low against the blue, mounting and flying out of the west. The men in the Albatross were evidently so intent on their task of observing the landscape beneath them and keeping well ahead of our blossoming shrapnel that they failed to observe the approach of the British ’plane as soon as they should have for their own good. They were heading west when they saw their danger, and instantly the Albatross swerved round and sped towards home. But the British flier had the heels of the German and the advantage of the position. It circled and dipped, and down through the clear air aloft came the rippling “tap-tap-tap” of the aërial machine-guns. Again and again the enemy’s frantic efforts to escape were frustrated by the skill and daring of the British pilot and the hedging fire of the British guns. Suddenly the gun of the German ’plane jammed and ceased; the pilot was hit and wounded; the Albatross commenced a rapid descent, in which it was followed by the British ’plane to within 1,000 feet of the ground. Then, under heavy shell-fire from German batteries the victorious machine rose and flew away undamaged, and the unfortunate Albatross struck the earth between the front and support trenches of the 14th (Montreal) Battalion and turned turtle. The German pilot was dead; the observer, slightly wounded, crawled to our support trenches and surrendered. The German batteries kept up a hot fire of high explosives and shrapnel on the machine with the object of smashing it beyond hope of repair before the Canadians could salvage it. They made several direct hits, but our men sapped out to the wreck and managed to bring most of it in, piece by piece. Among the articles brought in was the machine-gun that had jammed in the heat of the fight. This was found to be a Colt gun. Closer examination proved it to be one of the original guns of our 14th Battalion--to whose lines it had just made such a dramatic return! The gun had been abandoned during one of the desperate and confused fights of the Second Battle of Ypres half a year before.

In these months of September and October great efforts were expended on improving the line. Work in the front positions was done by the occupying battalions, and the troops in reserve came up night after night to assist their labours and to create new secondary positions and drive through fresh communication trenches. Even the training of new units was occasionally and rightly sacrificed to the performance of this essential task. The weather was, on the whole, favourable for these operations, with the exception of three days of rain early in September and a wet week late in October. The 1st Division, long on the ground and fortified by the experience of what good trenches mean for comfort and safety, was pre-eminent in these exertions, as would be proved by the trench-map with its continuous increase, month after month, in the black and zigzag lines of new work. Each tiny scrawl on the surface of such a map represents the labours of hundreds of men, extended over many nights. Second and third lines grew apace, so that a sudden attack of the enemy would still leave trenches to be held and would reduce the German bite to mere nibbles at the forward trench. The communication trenches are driven true and straight from well in the rear, and up these the ration parties toil in safety night after night under their burdens of food, water, ammunition, and R.E. material to feed the front line. These parties know well enough the difference between well-made lines and bad ones. Stooping under the heavy weights as they struggle on through the dark, they will bless in army fashion a smooth and dry surface underfoot and a sound high parapet which protects them from the casual German shells which are searching for them, or the intermittent whistle of the long-range bullet humming on its errand in the dusk. Messengers or stretcher-bearers with their burdens can move backwards or forwards even by day along the well-built hollow, and all those who pass are protected both from the arrow that flieth by night and the terror which walketh in the noonday. Very different is the story of a badly-kept line. It finds carrying parties struggling in, hours late, exhausted by wading through mud and water, and delayed by continually climbing out and walking outside the trench to avoid impassable sections. Here an unlucky shell or a casual bullet may take its toll. The men struggle back with difficulty, arriving hardly before the dawn, and with their period of supposed rest and recuperation turned into the most arduous of labours. It is not too much to say that the efficiency of a regiment or division can be tested by a comparison between the state in which it takes over and that in which it leaves its trenches.